A bakery posts about its Saturday sourdough class. The caption is warm, the photo is lovely, and the likes roll in. But the price is £15 too low and the date it names has already gone by. Nobody noticed, because the writing was so smooth.
That's the catch with any draft, whoever wrote it: polished is not the same as correct. This article walks through a short checklist you can run before a post goes live, with examples and wording you can copy.
Why a review step matters when someone else writes the draft
Drafts from a colleague, a freelancer or an assistant like Claude or ChatGPT can sound completely sure of themselves while getting a detail wrong. The writer simply doesn't know your business the way you do. They don't know you raised the price in September or that the class moved to the 16th.
And here's the part that trips people up. Reading a post for sense is not the same as checking it against the facts. A quick skim asks, "Does this sound right?" A real review asks, "Is this true?" So treat it as its own deliberate pass, with your booking page and calendar open, before you approve social media posts.
The checklist: eight things to look at before you approve
Copy this list. Paste it somewhere you'll see it. Then run every draft through it before you hit approve, whether Claude, ChatGPT or a colleague wrote it.
- Facts. Does every claim about what you offer match what you actually do? A tutor's post that says "all exam boards" is a problem if you only cover two.
- Prices. Check each figure against your current price list, including what's and isn't included. A bike shop post that says "full service £45" costs you £10 a time if the real price is £55.
- Dates and times. Check the day of the week against a calendar, plus opening hours and deadlines. A "this Saturday" offer in a post scheduled for the following week confuses everyone.
- Spelling and names. Look at product names, place names, your own business name and British spelling (colour, not color).
- Links. Click every one yourself. Confirm it lands on the right page and works on a phone.
- Photos. Is it the right product and the right season? Is there anything private or out of date in the background? Do you have permission for any customer or pupil in frame?
- Tone. Does it sound like you? Would you say it to a customer's face? Cut anything pushy, overexcited or off-brand.
- Tags and mentions. Check the handles are correct, the tags are sensible, and nothing points to the wrong account.
Start with the first four items. They are the details a draft can get wrong while still sounding sure. It doesn't know your price list changed in March. It can't see that you dropped a service last year.
One more thing. Some of what you post sits under rules, such as pricing claims, promotions and images of children. Those rules differ by country and they change. Check the current guidance where you operate rather than trusting a draft to have got it right.
Three drafts, three different catches
Let's run the checklist on three posts.
Here's how the checklist might play out on three example drafts. Same list, three very different catches.
The bakery. A post announcing a new seeded loaf. The facts are right and the writing is warm. But the "see the full menu" link goes to last month's page, and the photo shows the old packaging. Neither would jump out on a quick read. The fix: update the link, swap the photo.
The tutor. A post offering a free first session for GCSE maths. No typos anywhere. But the draft says sessions run "every weekday," and they actually run on three days only. A parent who turns up on a Friday wouldn't be happy. The fix: name the real days.
The bike shop. A post about a spring tune-up at £35. Two problems here. The price is wrong, and the tone is far shoutier than the shop's usual voice (all exclamation marks and capital letters). So the price gets corrected and the wording gets softened until it sounds like the shop again.
Notice where each catch came from. The bakery's problems sat in the links and images line. The tutor's error was a factual claim about the offer. The bike shop's trouble was a price check plus a voice check. Three drafts, three different lines on the list.
That's why you run the whole thing. If you only scan for spelling, you'd have passed all three posts and published every one of those mistakes.
How to ask for changes in plain words
When you spot a problem, the job is getting it fixed without a long back-and-forth.
You don't need special prompts. Say what's wrong, say what it should be, and say what to leave alone. That works whether you're typing into Claude or ChatGPT or emailing a freelancer.
Here are four requests you can copy and adjust:
- "Change the price to £55 and make clear it covers labour but not parts."
- "The class is on Saturday 14 March, not this Saturday. Update the date and the line that says 'tomorrow'."
- "Make this sound calmer and friendlier. Remove the exclamation marks and keep it under four sentences."
- "List every price, date and link in this post so I can check them against my own records."
That last one turns the draft into a checking aid. You're not asking for new writing. You're asking for an inventory, which you can then verify against your own records.
One more habit. Change one thing at a time where you can, then run your checklist again on the new version. A fix can introduce a fresh slip (swap a date and the "tomorrow" three paragraphs down suddenly makes no sense). Small edits, checked each time, keep you in control.
Turning the checklist into a habit
A checklist only helps if you actually use it.
A checklist only works if you see it. Pin it as a note on your phone, save it as a message to yourself, or paste it at the top of your content planning document. Somewhere you'll trip over it, not somewhere you'll have to remember.
Then run it in the same order every time. That's what turns it from a judgement call into a reflex. You won't be asking "do I feel good about this post?" (a question your mood answers for you). You'll just be working down the list.
Make approval a deliberate act, too. Nothing goes out until every box is ticked. That fits neatly with any setup where posts are drafted in advance and held for you to approve.
If someone else drafts for you, agree the list with them. They can pre-check it. But the final look stays yours.
And relax about the goal. You're not chasing perfection. You're taking one calm, consistent last look before your name goes on a post.
Your next step
Copy the eight points into a note on your phone today, then run them on the next post you're about to approve. It only needs one pass to see how the list feels in practice.
If you like, paste the list into Claude or ChatGPT along with your draft and ask it to flag every price, date and link. You still do the verifying against your own records, but you'll know exactly where to look. Keep it simple, keep it steady, and let the habit build at its own pace.